This sermon explores 1 Corinthians 12, emphasizing the local church as the unified body of Christ where every member is uniquely gifted and essential. It addresses pride and envy, calling believers to mutual love, service, and valuing each part of the body.
Transcript
Let’s turn to the book of First Corinthians. We’re going to continue our study in this wonderful letter.
This morning we’re going to begin reading in chapter 12, from verse 12, and we’re going to read to the end, to verse 31. This is, I mentioned this last week, this is one of my favorite passages in all of Scripture because it tells us how we’re to function in the body of Christ. It’s a passage that explains to us in very practical ways what the local church is and how we’re to function. Let’s just take a moment and read this, and then we’ll ask God’s blessing.
For even as the body is one, and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one, so also is Christ.
For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greek, or slaves or free. We’re all made to drink of one Spirit.
For the body is not one member, but many.
If the foot says, because I’m not a hand, I’m not part of the body. It is not for this reason any less part of the body.
And if the ear says, because I’m not an eye, I’m not part of the body, it is not for this reason any less a part of the body.
If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? And if the whole were hearing, where would the smell be?
But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired.
If they were all one member, where would the body be?
But now there are many members, but one body.
And the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you, or again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.
On the contrary, it is much truer that the members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary.
And those members of the body which we deem less honorable on these we bestow more abundant honor.
And our less presentable members become much more presentable.
Whereas our more presentable members have no need of it, but God has so composed the body, giving more abundant honor to that member which lacked.
So that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another.
If one member suffers, all the members suffer with it.
If one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.
Now you are Christ’s body, and individually members of it.
And God has appointed in the church first apostles, and second prophets, and third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helps, administrations, various kinds of tongues.
All are not apostles, are they? All are not prophets, are they? All are not teachers, are they? All are not workers of miracles, are they?
All do not have gifts of healings, do they? All do not speak with tongues, do they? All do not interpret, do they?
But earnestly desire the greater gifts.
And I show you a still more excellent way.
Let’s ask God’s blessing on His word as we read it this morning. Father, we’re so thankful for Your kind grace. We thank You, Father, that out of abundant grace You gave this communication of Your word to the Corinthian church. A church that was divided in so many ways and had so many difficult problems. Yet, Father, out of grace You have sent this corrective, which is so informative to us, which is such a blessing to us. We ask, Father, that You help us to understand better the nature of Your church, the local church.
Recognizing, Father, that it is a true, vital work of God, but also, Father, let us learn this morning that You designed it in such a way that it cannot function as it’s intended to function without Your people participating in the way that You’ve designed and gifted them to share. We ask, Father, for Your help in understanding these things and the blessing that that is to us, in Christ’s name. Amen.
The Local Church
One of the things I was thinking about this week is the contrast between First Corinthians and the book of Ephesians. In the book of Ephesians, we did that study a few years ago. We went through the book of Ephesians, and it is a wonderful, glorious book that emphasizes the eternal relationship that we have with God. God, if you remember how the book starts out, it starts out with God in eternity past, purposing His saving work to call out a people, doing that in Christ Jesus. It talks about the commissioning of the church, the work that He is doing, and it gives an analogy, a figure of speech, where it describes the body of Christ, using that as a metaphor for the church. It describes all of that, you know, the body, the head of the body is the Lord Jesus Christ, and then we form the elements of the body. It’s a beautiful picture. It has a lot in common with what we are looking at this morning.
And yet, there’s some very strong differences. There’s a difference in the purpose of the two books. The purpose of Ephesians is talking about us and our relationship with the body of Christ universal especially. You know, the heavenly focus that we have in our salvation. The book of First Corinthians, the focus is particularly on the church at Corinth that Paul is addressing this letter, and the needs, and the struggles, and the problems that they had. The focus is very local there.
And so it’s interesting to me that that is kept, that idea is kept as we get to this passage in First Corinthians 12. It’s using that same idea of the body of Christ as a picture of the church, and yet it has these differences. In Ephesians, for example, the body of Christ, the head of the body is the Lord Jesus Christ. In First Corinthians 12, the head of the body is made up of the members of the church. Why would he do that? Why would he change the metaphor from Ephesians to here?
I think the difference is because the emphasis, everything about the universal church is true in First Corinthians 12. But the emphasis in First Corinthians 12 is not on the universal church. It’s the practical outworking of this in the life of the body of a believer in the local church. The emphasis is on the local church. And we’ve seen that all through First Corinthians, haven’t we? The necessity of the local church. I mean, you have, in this, we’ve already seen, for example, the act, the issue of discipline, and even excommunication, that took place in chapter 5. Paul’s recommending that they, this person be removed from their fellowship. If a person’s being removed from a fellowship, that means that there is a fellowship that has some definition, and that it means something to be removed from the fellowship. The emphasis is on the local church, and the emphasis is on the local church.
The emphasis on leadership, Paul asserting his leadership, and the focus of leadership, the tensions that come about because of the divisiveness that has come about in the Corinthian church. All of these things talking about how a church should function in worship. So you have this picture, and then that’s reinforced as we come to chapter 12, and we get the metaphor of the body. The church, we are members, it says, of this body. He is describing the functionality of the church, and through that, this, this word applies very directly to every, every local church.
Unity in Diversity
So, a member of the body is like a foot, and an eye, an ear. That’s the imagery that’s in this text, and it’s describing the functioning of the body, the body of Christ in the local assembly. The first thing that I want us to look at in the beginning in verse 12, a local church, or a church, the church is unified. The local church needs to have and express that unity. It is, it is, if it’s a true church, then there’s has to be a unity in that church that is coming about by the power of the Holy Spirit of God. That’s true for the universal church. I mean, we are brought together into the body of Christ universal. So he begins with this idea.
For even as the body is one, yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ.
When it says “so also is Christ,” it’s talking about the church. It’s talking about the body of Christ. He says,
For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body.
What does that mean, “by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body”? If you’ve ever, if you’ve ever attended a baptism here, then this is one of the things that we talk about. When we, when we baptize someone with water baptism, that’s, you know, we’re, we’re expressing what this word means in a very literal way, in, in the active, in, in the ordinance of baptism. The word “baptize” means to “dip into,” “to place into.” Some of the ways it’s used is like dying a cloth, so you dye the cloth, dye your hair. It’s dipped into the, immersed into the, the liquid dye. It’s used of a ship that was baptized into the water, you know, meaning it didn’t come back up. It’s used of a smith who, heating the iron and shaping it into its shape, plunges it into the water. It means to be immersed into it. And here the word is used not talking about the rite of baptism, but the idea that when you come to faith in Jesus Christ, you are immersed into His body, into His church. You are become a part of it. You become identified with it. You belong to it, to His church. You are identified, immersed into the body of Christ. It’s a spiritual thing that we’re describing, about belonging to His church. You are identified, immersed into the body of Christ. It’s a spiritual thing that we’re describing about belonging to His church. It’s the idea of belonging to, being connected with, associated with.
So, we are connected by God, by the Holy Spirit, in a unified and vital, life-giving way. We’re far more together in that unity than any of us can be separately. So that’s the, that’s the, the one, the, the first thing that he emphasizes is this unity. And it’s a unity that is made up of diversity, and that’s really extraordinary. When God created you, He created you as a very unique individual. He created you as someone whose DNA is absolutely unique. Your fingerprint is so unique that it can be used to identify you and separate you from everybody else in the world. You’re created with, you know, remarkable individuality in that way. But when He saves you, He saves you and gifts you in a unique way. There’s nobody else in the world who is going, who has the gifts that you have or is able to be used in the way that you’re able to be used by the Holy Spirit of God. If for some reason you fail or dismiss your ability, or just simply out of selfishness decide not to be used, there’s going to be something there that will always be missing. God can make up, and does, it doesn’t mean His church ever fails. But it means that you’re not going to be used in the way of grace that God provided. And as a result, His church will suffer for it. His church suffers because of the failures of the individual to be used in the way that God’s gifted and blessed them to be used. So, it’s an extraordinary thing to think about. That diversity, the fact that everyone is unique and different, you’re not alike. The gifts are not alike. One person is able to teach a lesson, another person is given a gift of helps, to be able to help people in a way, practically speaking, that they’re ministered to by the Holy Spirit of God. The gifts are all different. The nature of the people are all different. And yet they come together by the power of the Holy Spirit in a unity, in a bond that is absolutely unified. You know, a good analogy is like a symphony orchestra, where all the instruments have different timbre, and just the tones that they make are different. And then they play music that is not exactly the same, though they’re all playing from the same score. All that works together in incredible beauty. When it all comes together rightly, then it’s something that is truly beautiful. So it is with the local church. We’re to come together and we’re to, each of us, submit to our own, to the, to the Spirit of God and the giftedness that we’ve received, and we’re to serve the people of the church. Serve the Lord, by serving the people of the church, through the giftedness which God has given us.
Valuing Every Part
So he deals with that issue. We’re not a monstrosity, we’re a functioning organism, just like a body functions. It works the other way too, as well. If you look down, I’m skipping over things that I probably shouldn’t do that. I think we shouldn’t miss verse 18. I’m about to skip over. God has set members, each one of them in the body, just as He pleases. That means that this is absolutely God’s design. And your place in the body is by God’s sovereign design. So that’s something that we need to recognize here. It’s, it’s so important. You, we are valuable people, and God has placed you in His body. He, you know, He has given you a gift, and the reason that you have the spiritual ability that you have is because Jesus Christ went to the cross and paid for it with His own blood. So it’s serious, and it’s precious beyond anything we can comprehend or imagine. So you can function in the body the way that God desires you to function, and He’s placed you, each one of them in the body, just as He pleases. You know, I think it’s quite possible that we don’t understand exactly how someone functions in the body, and yet they provide a role that is absolutely necessary to us. We may not understand it completely, even understand how we function completely, but as long as we’re submissive to the Spirit of God and interacting with one another, you know, out of love to serve one another, I think that that functionality will happen. It continues, it emerges. So that’s, that’s really important. I mean, I don’t understand how all the parts of my body functions. Certainly I don’t. I remember I was taking a human anatomy class years ago. And the class was right after lunch. And so there were times when the professor is lecturing and you began to drift off a bit. And one day he was talking about the bundle of His. I sort of woke up with that. And I thought, “The bundle of His?” And he says, he’s begins to talk about it and it’s a little, little part, some cells, some, part of your, top part of your heart. And if it were not there, your heart wouldn’t beat. It provides the little electrical impulse that filters through the muscles of your heart causing it to beat each time. All of a sudden I’m very thankful. I have a bundle of His that I didn’t know who His was before. That’s true. You know, there’s all kinds of functionality that we have in the body, and they’re necessary. So he says on verse 22, “On the contrary, it’s much truer that the members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary.” And those members of the body which we deem less honorable, on these we bestow more abundant honor. There’s all kinds of parts to your body that you might not think much about. There was, you know, when you, when you begin to think about your body, there’s not just the bundle of His that you have. Almost any, any vital organ in your body is absolutely necessary for life. Some, some gifts are showy and seem so important. We think, “Wow, they’re so vital. We won’t be able to function if we lose those.” And yet, the body continues to live if you lose the eyes, doesn’t it? There are people, it’s not functioning the way that God intended the body to function. But you haven’t, it doesn’t, it doesn’t bring about death. A person can go deaf and still be able to function in the world. There are parts of the body that nobody ever thinks much about. I, I almost never think about my kidneys. I don’t think about, you know, the organs of my body very often unless, you know, I have a pain or something. But they’re absolutely vital to my life. I would not be able to live without those. And so it is in the church. There are people in the church who get a lot of attention, but they’re maybe not so vital as you think at all. There are people in the church that you don’t think much about, and yet without them the church will not be able to continue, to function, to live. Whenever anyone dismisses their gifts or fails to act on it, it causes a problem in the body. It causes us to function not the way we, we’re sick. You know, it causes us to not function in the way that God has enabled us to function. It’s true in life, of course. You know, you, there’s a lot of analogies you can draw. I was, we spent some time a few years ago in hospitals for various reasons. And one of the things that’s interesting is how doctors are celebrated in the hospital. And how little attention the sanitation people are given. Most people think that way about them. Here’s somebody who’s going to save somebody’s life, and here’s a worker in the hospital who’s just a worker in the hospital. Their work’s necessary and important, but, you know, they’re just a worker. The interesting thing is, especially in hospitals today, I, I wouldn’t, I’ve told some of them, as they came to clean the room, told them, “I said, I’m fairly certain that you save more lives than the doctors do here.” Because they’re dealing with all the bacteria and things that they eliminate, an unnecessary role, an important role.
Well, the surprises in the judgment is that people that we don’t think much about are going to get honored by the Lord, probably more so than some of the people that we look to and we think about. And I think that that’s exactly right. So we need to not think this way. The Corinthians are clearly thinking this way. You know, First Corinthians 1, chapter 1, Paul says, “God’s chosen the foolish things of this world to shame the wise, and He’s chosen the weak things of the world to shame those that are strong. And the base things of the world and the despised, God’s chosen them all that are not so that He may nullify the things that are so that no man may be able to boast before the Lord.” They were boasting, and boasting is causing divisions. First Corinthians 4:7 says, “Who regards you as superior? What do you have that you didn’t receive? And if you received it, why do you boast?” It’s an un-Christian way of thinking. The Lord Jesus said, described the way that leadership works in the secular world. And then He says, “But it’s not this way with you. But the one who is the greatest among you must become like the youngest, and the leader like the servant.” And every one of us is to have a servant attitude about the gifts that God’s given us, recognizing that they’re gifts from God, and there’s nothing for us to take any credit for in ourselves, but we’re to serve out of love for the other, not to build ourselves up. This chapter began with the exaltation of Christ with our gifts. And if we’re building ourselves up, we’re not building Christ up.
Mutual Care and Love
So we’re to value each other. We are to delight in each other. He tells us that we are to, in verse 26, he says, “If one member suffers, all the members suffer with it. And if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.” That’s, I mean, that’s exactly the way it must be in the body of Christ. It’s that way with anybody that you love. If you love somebody, and something good happens to that person, then your heart rejoices, and you’re so thrilled and happy with what has happened with them. If they go through a difficulty or a sorrow, then you grieve with them. You grieve because you love them. You, you, you rejoice in their joys because you love them, and you want them to, you want to see them blessed by the Lord. And that’s the way it needs to be in the body of Christ, with, with each other. We’re to love each other. And when one person receives a blessing from God, we’re not to be envious of that. We’re to rejoice, because if we love them, if we love them, we’re not going to be envious or jealous or anything like that. We’re going to be so joyful that they’ve ex- that they’ve experienced this blessing from God. And if there’s a difficulty or a sorrow, then we grieve with them. We sorrow for them. It’s the natural response to anyone who loves anyone.
So we’re to be involved with each other, in such a way that we love and are able to serve and be used of God in the ways that God’s gifted us to be used. You know, we come together in, in a local church, and we identify with each other. We do that in a local church through the ordinances of baptism, and Lord’s Supper, and through the exercise of our spiritual gifts especially. And we’re used in the body of Christ. And we’re to be accountable to one another. One of the interesting things is he closes out this chapter in verse 31 with “Earnestly desire the greater gifts.” One of the things I should tell you is, when he says that, he’s talking, that those are plurals. It’s not, you can’t read plurals in English. But those are plurals. He’s saying, “You, as a church, earnestly desire the greater gifts.”
A More Excellent Way
And then he says, “I’m going to show you how to do that. I’m going to show you a more excellent way.” And that leads to chapter 13. And that’s the key. The key is the love. So we’re going to be exploring that in weeks to come. But it’s, it’s, it’s, if, if you love people, then you want them to be served before you. You want, you want to do things for their benefit, more than yourself. And so you’re sacrificially ministering to them in the divinely given grace that God has given you, using the gifts that God’s given you to serve someone else. And as you do that, you function in the body of Christ. And as the body comes together and functions like that, it is something that is absolutely great. It’s an extraordinary and wonderful thing. It is far more than if you, if you take the parts of a body, and cut them all off, separate them. If you could do that, and they still function, if that were possible, you still wouldn’t have what you have with one body functioning in unity. It’s, it’s absolutely that way with us. The church itself is greater than any one of us. It’s far more beautiful and glorious and wonderful. And it’s wonderful that way, because that’s the way God has designed it. It works in harmony with His true creation. It’s the, it’s the, it’s the idea that He had in mind for us all. And so we need to be careful. We need to be careful that we operate in His church in the way that He’s designed for us to operate. We belong to the church, and that is a gift of God’s grace. It’s far more than we, most, most of us realize. It’s a gift that has come to us because of the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. It came at great sacrifice, and it’s precious and wonderful. And so God has gifted you, brought you together uniquely and sovereignly, to be used as His people. So we should be submissive to His Spirit, and not, and not deny what God has given us. That’s the message today. Let’s look to Him in prayer. Father, we’re grateful to You for Your extraordinary grace, that You not only saved us, but You equipped us to be of use to You and the body of Christ. Thank You, Father, for the beauty of the church. Thank You, Lord, for the way it functions in wonderful ways. We, we so emphasize the negative things that we forget the beauty of the body. We, we downplay it because of the problems we may have experienced. And yet, Father, it is there. It was there in the Corinthian church, and Paul’s calling their attention to it, so that it can function the way You intended. You have created us as an organic body. We are a living entity. And Father, we, we thank You for the privilege. We ask, Father, that as we, as we submit to Your Spirit, that You use us in any way that, that brings glory to our Savior, and that builds up and edifies the family of God that we belong to. We pray this, Father, in the strong name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.